The Sisterhood Barbara Seals Nevergolds Its Fate

Gentlemen Prefer Blondes - Carl, Not So Much

Here in Buffaltucky it's hard to keep a straight face after the Super and her Sorority Majority have recently completed a Homerun Throwback on the Male Caucasian Caucus that would leave Big Frank Wycek and Lorenzo Neal shaking their heads whispering "Damn, that's good." And like the Music City Miracle the result is Buffalonians groaning and firing their empty Labatt's cans against the wall saying Not Again... Even in the City of No Illusions we suspend our disbelief on occasion or more likely we have what Tom Friedman might have called a failure of the imagination. That's how the fat neo liberal described 9-11 and I don't think he's made a lick of sense since but anyway... 

Mary Guinn came here with Cross and Joftus as they ushered in the Pamela Brown era. She was embedded in City Hall and soon her name was turning up on pay sheets and as a CC in memos that really should have not included her. She was spun as something of a facilitator, a helpful hand of the company who'd help "get things up to speed" after she "was brought on board." Doncha love their goddamned corporate phrases? Well, Mugsy as I like to call her, wasn't having that. She soon began administrating in the giant concavity of leadership that is Pamela Brown's trademark. And as all good things come to an end Mary Guinn's gravy train pulled into the station and she was unceremoniously disembarked by order of the school board who apparently had seen enough of her signature and her being CC'd on stuff that really didn't concern her. Somewhere in her brief tour she crossed paths with one Debra Sykes who filed a complaint against her for harassment. When it appeared nothing was to be done about said complaint Ms. Sykes, a long time BPS hand whose work and professionalism have always been well regarded, inquired to the powers of Talent Management about the status of the complaint. Yes the News called it Human Resources but we don't have that any more. When summoned to meet with them teachers often bring their union rep and their agent... And wouldn't you know it but shortly after said inquiry Ms. Sykes was summoned to that cozy little cubicle on the 7th floor of City Hall and invited to sign a letter of resignation or face termination procedures. In her magnanimity Pamela Brown allowed Debra Sykes until the end of the work day to decide. The strange part about this detail of Sykes' departure is I am not sure I heard it from Sykes right away but from Board member Carl Paladino. 

If Mugsy Guinn needed a third strike against her it would probably be in the vast piles of cash she has drained from the district. Between her digs at Embassy Suites, her travel expenses and the concomitant feed baggery, her salary eclipsed Brown's by a wide margin and her monthly expenses alone approach the salary of a 25th year teacher with a master's. Add her deep financial foot print to the gross overstepping of her role and thuggish behavior to fellow City Hall dwellers and you have a slam dunk for what we like to refer to as a "disgruntled ex-employee." Except for the slight detail that after the audience was gone and most board members were checking their texts for grocery requests on the way home Pamela Brown dusted off Mugsy Guinn's file and slid it across the table to have her re-hired as Deputy Superintendent. And with McCarthy out of town, not that it really mattered since he would only have provided the 4th vote of the Male Caucasian Caucus anyway, it was slam dunked in your face by the Sorority Majority some of whom had clearly been appraised that it was coming though Kapsiak is claiming ignorance. 

The most interesting end of this sad and predictably lame maneuver in the late innings of a board session from a Superintendent who recently and with no hint of irony has begun a campaign of Glasnost and Transparency lies in the Whys? of her actions.

• Why would she do something so outrageously divisive at this point?
• Why did she not even tell her friends on the board what she was up to if Kapsiak is to be believed?
• Why would she antagonize Paladino and Sampson any further when they have already promised to buy the board majority and oust her?
• Why did she ever come here in the first place? 

All of the above assume at least marginal intelligence of how things work on the part of the Super of course. It's more likely that arrogance and good old fashioned lack of common sense account for the lion's share of her decision making. Either way it would appear that Nevergold has added her name to the former board member's roll with her part in this shady operation. If Paladino and Sampson were lacking in resolve to go out and spend the money it will take to grab control of this board, PamelaBrownPhDHarvard has given them a booster shot that will put her and her recent hire out of work.